Section: The American Interest (USA)
Farming and Agriculture in the Age of Trump
The agricultural and food component of the U.S. economy is large and dynamic by most economic measures. While farming accounts for just over 1 percent of GDP and employment, the full economic significance of farming is much larger because agricultural products are used in value-added activities such as food manufacturing, services, and food...
Getting a Bead on Greed
Financial Exposure: Carl Levin’s Senate Investigations into Finance and Tax AbuseElise J. BeanPalgrave Macmillan, 2018, 449 pp., $49.99 Donald Trump has, as of the moment I write this, made 8,158 false or misleading claims since becoming President. He began by averaging five a day, but his daily score is now into the double figures and...
Fixing Congress, Fighting China: An Interview with Rep. Mike Gallagher
Mike Gallagher is the U.S. Representative for Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District. First elected in 2016 at the age of 33, he previously served for seven years as a Marine Corps counterintelligence officer, including two deployments to Iraq. Since assuming office, Gallagher has emerged as one of the Republican Party’s youngest...
Slovakia Returns to Normal
One of Europe’s most interesting political stories is currently unfolding in Slovakia as the country readies itself for a presidential election later this month. Defying the common view of Central Europe as a backward region captivated by charismatic nationalist leaders with a soft spot for Russia, Slovaks are about to elect a squarely...
The Eastern Blind Spot in German Leadership
“To exclude Russia is the wrong strategic signal” Chancellor Merkel said as she defended the Nord Stream 2 project at the recent Munich Security Conference. As I watched her from my vantage in Berlin, it dawned on me that the controversial project marks an inflection point for European security. For years the world has urged Germany to become...
Trump Is Deranging Cable News—and Keeping It Alive
The British Broadcasting Corporation produces great, global newscasts for tens of millions of viewers. In February, for instance, its all-news channel broadcast stories about the threat to Britain of returning ISIS soldiers, riots in Haiti, clips from the Munich Security Conference, a short item on President Trump’s “wall” tangle with...
The Sources of the West’s Decline
Only five years ago, the general consensus among U.S. and European policy wonks was that, notwithstanding occasional glitches, the so-called liberal international order would remain the dominant global paradigm. For decades, the cognoscenti had assumed that export-driven modernization would eventually transform the likes of communist China into a...
“Just Because You Don’t Believe in the Devil Does Not Mean He’s Gone Away”
Tom Tugendhat is a British Conservative Party politician, military veteran (Iraq and Afghanistan), and chairman of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. He opposed Brexit, yet now opposes a second referendum. Tugendhat’s influence has grown since being elected to Parliament in 2015. Some consider him a future party leader....
The Futile Search for a Russian Ideology
When we read about Russia in the media, we almost never hear about conceptions of Russia’s vision of the world. We hear a lot about what Russia does to the West, rather than what it thinks and envisions. In truth, Putin’s Russia has never proposed any ideology that is anything but an opportunistic counter-positioning to the West. We...
A Conservative Case for German Leadership in Europe
Since Reunification in 1991, Germany has intermittently and ambivalently contemplated a more significant leadership role in international politics, including the Atlantic Alliance. The central question here is where relations with the United States are headed. For the past 30 years, German leaders have chosen to leave this question for a more...
